Watch The Medium (1951) Online

The Medium (1951)iMDB Rating: 7.0
Date Released : 5 September 1951
Genre : Drama, Music
Stars : Marie Powers, Leopoldo Savona, Belva Kibler, Beverly Dame. Madame Flora is terrified when she perceives a supernatural presence during one of her fraudulent séances. Menotti's first international success, "The Medium" is a tragedy in two acts for five singers, a dance-mime role, and a chamber opera for thirteen instruments and fourteen players: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, percussion, piano (4 hands), and string quintet. The music is ..." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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Madame Flora is terrified when she perceives a supernatural presence during one of her fraudulent séances. Menotti's first international success, "The Medium" is a tragedy in two acts for five singers, a dance-mime role, and a chamber opera for thirteen instruments and fourteen players: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, percussion, piano (4 hands), and string quintet. The music is dissonant, eerie, and morbid and includes melodies such as 'O, black swan.'

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Review :

Outstanding film version of Menotti's opera

Amahl and the Night Visitors may be Menotti's most well-known and most performed opera, but the 1960 production of The Consul and this film version of The Medium are great examples of why those two operas deserve to be almost in the same class. It is true that this film is not The Medium that you would see staged at the opera house, that doesn't matter because it is truly outstanding in every department. And Gian-Carlo Menotti is a huge part of the film's success, being not just the composer but also the director and writer, while he is best known as a composer he shows great skill in the writing and directing departments. The film looks great with a film-noir look to it and some of it is bizarre but in a good and striking way, especially with Madame Flora's visions. The drama and staging is intelligent and grabs you right in, with a moving ending and a quite disturbing scene with Toby and Monica at the fair and with Toby being harassed. The music is just lovely and dramatic, the highlight for me has always been Monica's beautifully dark lullaby The Black Swan, rhythmically relatively simple and the hauntingly beautiful main theme will stay in your head long after but with some very awkward note intervals in the middle(even if you are a good sight reader or have absolute pitch you might still struggle). And what is so good about Menotti's writing is, as librettist, lyric-writer or script-writer, is how vivid and poetic his way of words are and the impact they have, particularly apparent in The Black Swan which with the right word painting creates some quite harrowing imagery. The story is easy to follow and has a lot of emotional power, also good in filling in the short running time with good development or not much filler, even giving more to subsidiary characters like Mrs Nolan. Menotti's directing is controlled, and the performances are really impressive apart from some too obvious lip synching(not an uncommon problem in filmed opera though actually). Like Patricia Neway in The Consul, Marie Powers is one performance you are unlikely to forget, her contralto voice is very powerfully projected and Madame Flora's tormented character is brought to life most vividly and movingly. Anna Maria Alberghetti is adorable and sings with a clear, pure tone to her soprano voice. Leo Coleman is both savage and affecting despite not saying a word. Overall, outstanding film, an example of filmed opera done really well. 10/10 Bethany Cox